


The Gourmet and the Culinarian

by Snoopy384



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Backstory, Drama, Food, French cuisine, Mild Gore, Recipes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-04-30 23:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5184230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snoopy384/pseuds/Snoopy384
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gourmet: a person with a discerning palate.<br/>Culinarian: a person skilled in the preparation of food.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Tsukiyama Family Chef

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the reason i didnt get chapter 3 of the destruction of sasaki haise uploaded this week :D

Working for the illustrious Tsukiyama family has been the most rewarding experience of my life. From his childhood, the young master has always been interested in food. This interest differed than that of normal ghouls in that the young master loved tasting different types of food, with different methods of preparation. By the time he could walk, he was already observing me prepare the family meals and was my best taste-tester. By age twelve he could differentiate the tastes of a young girl from a young woman not five years her senior. From my experience, street ghouls could neither taste a difference nor cared to find out.

There were times when I cursed my existence, forced to use but one ingredient: human. I ached to be a human, to create dishes with exotic spices and fine wines. It was this lust for variation that led me to experiment with every part of the body. I found the lifestyle the human lead could produce vastly different flavours and textures. This was something I had known by instinct in my youth but have finally put into words. The meat is tender and sinewy if the human is an athlete; a bit fatty and juicy if they are not. If they are excessively obese, the excess fat must be removed if the meat is to be cooked evenly; if not, the final product becomes oily and dry. Other parts could be used to mimic human foods. Combining bone meal and bone marrow could create something akin to the consistency of bread, blood with different alcohol proofs was a substitute for numerous wines and spirits. My greatest discovery of all, however, was that human breast milk was palatable to ghouls. I was overjoyed when I discovered this! There were so many possibilities this unlocked and it quickly became a delicacy. The young master was eager to try my new dishes and more eager to help make them. Taking from human methods, we could make cream from the fat which separated when milk was left to settle. From the cream, we could process it into butter, buttermilk and butterfat. We could whip it into whipping cream, let it sour into sour cream. We could evaporate the water from milk to get condensed milk; we could add cultures and acid to it to produce different cheeses. With some difficulty, we could boil the milk and add cultures to produce yoghurt. The culmination of these ingredients was ice cream, the supposedly heavenly sweet treat perfect for hot summer days. For some time I wanted to write a cookbook to share all of this with the rest of the ghoul world. Though the rest of the family was skeptical of the foods at first, the young master convinced them with the amount be ate that it was safe for ghoul consumption. By the time the young master had grown, he had become my greatest companion. As he grew into a refined gentleman, so did his pallet. He adored picking apart the subtle flavours of my meals and savouring each; I enjoyed constructing extravagant dishes with our newfound ingredients. We were yin and yang in the kitchen. Fabricating elegant, aromatic and beautiful dishes out of one main ingredient never ceased to bring me pride.

This changed three years ago, when the young master fell into a depression. He ceased eating my cooking entirely, stopped coming to visit. In the beginning, master Mirumo assured the servants and I that the young master was just feeling under the weather and would return to his extravagant self presently. Weeks passed, then months and the young master continued to grow weak. At one point, master Mirumo came down to the kitchen to assure me that he and the staff still relished my dishes. Although I was grateful for his kind words, this was small comfort for a man who had lost his complement. Rumours among the staff circulated about the young master's consumption of raw ghoul meat. I refused to believe such an offensive rumour; how could the lordly gourmet eater be reduced to picking at scraps?

In an attempt to rouse the young master's appetite for the fine once more I began making more exotic, French-style dishes. _Choucroute saucisses, pâté de foie humain, gigot pleureur_ , even German-esque dishes such as _porter geschmorte Rinderbrust_ per sir Kanae's suggestion. None of them made a difference. The young master continued to grow weak, and with it, more chaotic. Master Mirumo wanted to see his son healthy more than anyone, and began personally attending auctions to procure specialty ingredients for my dishes. After three years of this with no change, I became disillusioned. Knowing the young master, the cause of his depression was a one-of-a-kind ingredient that had slipped through his grasp. I knew this feeling well. In my youth, I would spend countless hours focused on my prey, fattening it up or gaining its trust. I understood that losing your finer ingredients was a personal wound; however this had become too excessive for a mere human. I wished to tell the young master that there were other, more eccentric and delightful ingredients out there and nothing would come from mourning the loss of one.

I was not alone in my kitchen without the the young master, however. I still had the rest of the staff and sir Kanae often came to visit. He would offer suggestions on what the young master might eat, but it only partially filled the void. Sir Kanae lacked the refinement and knowledge that the young master held. Still, I was eager to help the young master in any way I could. Chie Hori became an occasional guest after the young master’s depression as well. She was a curious little monkey. She would watch me prepare the family meals, taking pictures of every part of the preparation. I was a tad concerned at her photography, but the fact that she was here at all meant that master Mirumo trusted her. Between documenting the preparation, she’d ask questions about everything that came to mind; the taste, how it was cooked, how we obtained the ingredients. For a human, she was worryingly curious about cooking other humans. Though she seemed innocuous enough, she brought the the young master back from his depression. Afterwards, the rest of the servants began gossiping about what Chie Hori did to save him. I was unconcerned with the details, though, all that matter was that he was back. My entire world was alight once more. The young master was just as he had been three years prior. He began visiting my kitchen again, apologising profusely for his absence. I was eager to have him taste the new recipes I had created. _Magret de l’homme_ , made from the fatty breast of a mildly overweight man, requiring no more to cook than the fats already present and created a tender yet juicy meat; _sundae de sang_ , which quickly became a staff favourite; a variation of it: _parfait de sang_ topped with the eye of a schoolgirl -- master Mirumo’s favourite.

For a few glorious weeks, we were together again; as if no time had passed. I wished it could last forever, but it all ended too soon. Master Mirumo came to the staff and solemnly told us of the impending CCG extermination. We all understood his meaning immediately, to lay down our lives for our cherished masters who treated us so kindly over the years. Master Mirumo’s final order was to protect the young master at all costs. We gladly undertook his request. The staff lined up on either side of the front entrance to welcome the investigators while master Mirumo waited in the lobby. Shortly after, the investigators arrived and cornered us; master Mirumo surrendered to one immediately, under the condition of living as a human until the very end. Most of the staff held the same beliefs and we gave ourselves willingly to our reapers. However, they were not as kind to us. A number of investigators approached, asking for our job and function in the household. They became our judge and, if they deemed us unworthy, our executioner. One by one I watched as the men and women I had worked with throughout the years were struck down next to me. When it came my turn, I told them of my prestigious position as the Tsukiyama family chef and prepared myself to join my co-workers -- my friends. It never came, though. The dove informed his companions of my status and decided I was worth enough to keep alive. I, alone, stood among the corpses of my companions at the end. There could be no greater pain than this. Still, I would not fight; if our sacrifices offered the young master -- offered Shuu a few more moments of escape, our deaths could be meaningful. As I was detained, I overheard an investigator mention to another that the Research Division would use my knowledge to create a more efficient meat cocktail to sustain the Cochlea ghouls. In some small way, I could still serve master Mirumo, albeit from afar. My mind returned to Shuu and I could only hope he had managed to escape.


	2. Tsukiyama Family Dairy Recipes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> probably dont trust these recipes

If you would like to make your own homemade dairy products, simply follow my recipes below.

Cream

Heat full fat milk to a boil in a pot for 3-5 minutes. Let sit for 30 minutes to a few hours as the fats collect at the top. Collect the top layer of 'Malai' in a separate colander and refrigerate. Continue to collect malai twice a day. Once enough malai has been collected in a colander, whisk until it has a creamy consistency. Use cream right away or save for up to a week.

Butter

You will need room temperature cream. The amount of cream used is about equal to the amount of butter produced. Place cream in a food processor and run it. If you do not have a food processor you can stir the cream with a fork; whisking it will make whipping cream. The cream will congeal into yellow curds of butterfat in buttermilk after a few minutes. Strain the buttermilk out and save it for other recipes. Place the butterfat curds in a bowl and wash with cold water to remove the rest of the buttermilk. Press the curds together while washing with a spoon. Continue this until the water comes out clear. Shape and refrigerate the butter. It will last a week before spoiling.

Cheese

Warm full fat milk in a pot to a slow boil while stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Add 2 tablespoons of stomach acid or one juiced lemon to curdle the milk which may take up to 10 minutes. A gel will form. Cut the gel into squares; the size of the squares will determine the dryness of the cheese. Heat and stir curds in a bowl. Washing the curds before separating will create a sweeter taste. Strain the curds in a colander lined with cheesecloth and press into shape while warm. Eat immediately or age for different tastes.

The liquid strained from the curds is sweet Whey. It can be substituted in recipes that call for skim milk and can be used to produce ricotta cheese. Cream can be skimmed from it to make butter; it is tangier and saltier than cream from milk. Both cheese and Whey may last up to a week before spoiling.

Condensed Milk

Mix 1 and a half cups of full fat milk with an optional half cup of sugar in a deep-bottom pot, stirring often, and bring it to a boil. Once it begins to boil, lower the temperature to a simmer and let the water evaporate for about two hours. Once half of the original amount has evaporated, you may optionally add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and whisk. When refrigerated, it will keep for about a month before spoiling.

Yoghurt

Heat one liter of full fat milk to just under a boil. In order to make yoghurt from scratch, a culture must be added from a previous yoghurt batch. An alternative to this is a pinch of anthill soil. Seal and let sit for a day. After one day, the yoghurt will be ready to add to future batches of yoghurt but not for consumption. When using yoghurt, save a small portion for future batches.

Ice Cream

Combine 14 ounces of condensed milk, 2 cups of cream and 2 cups of whipped cream in a bowl and mix well. Add any flavourings you may want to use. Fill a large bowl with salted ice. Place a second, smaller bowl on top of the ice bowl and add ice cream mixture to it. Wrap both in plastic and refrigerate.

Alternatively, to make ice cream faster. Fill a large bag with salt and ice and place a smaller bag with the ice cream mixture inside the large bag. Shake both well. Ice cream will be ready to eat in 5 minutes. Add preferred toppings.

 

With these ingredients, you are on your way to making many more exquisite dishes and desserts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now back to your regularly scheduled updates?


End file.
